Dust guard cap for journal boxes



Feb. 21, 1939. w M R 2,148,367

DUST GUARD CAP FOR JOURNAL BOXES Filed Aug. 12, 1937 IN VENTOR.

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2 P N I K mar.

Patented Feb. 21 1939 PATENT OFFICE DUST GUARD GAP FOR JOURNALBOXES George W. Ditmore, Albany, N. Y., assignor to The Rails Company, New Haven, Conm, a corporation of Connecticut Application August 12, 1937, Serial No. 158,632

1 Claim.

My invention relates to dust guard caps for journal boxes in connection with the trucks of railroad cars.

As is well known in the art the journal box of a railroad car, known variously as an axle box, car box or grease box, encloses the journal of a car axle, the journal bearing and wedge, and holds the oil and packing for lubricating the journal. At the front is a lid or cover providing access and at the back there is usually a dust guard chamber, usually open at the top, in which is placed a dust guard to prevent the escape of oil and waste around the dust guard bearing and to exclude dust. The dust guard, variously called the axle packing or box packing, is usually a relatively thin plate or piece of wood, leather, felt or a metal form reinforcing asbestos or rubber. The guard hugs around the dustguard bearingportion of the axle and somewhat loosely fits into the dust guard chamber.

Heretofore, it has been usual to leave the top of the chamber open or close it temporarily according to the whim of the individual by stuffing in waste or driving in a plug of wood. Either closure is apt to be lost in transit, cast aside or mislaid when access is required and, especially if the car is moved, apt to be lost. It is recognized that the opening cannot be adanvtageously sealed in any permanent way as access is required from time to time, sometimes hurriedly and because of extreme inaccessibility close to the wheel and under the overhanging side frame and the fact that railroad cars go all over the country with all types of labor and handling, whatever closure expedient of this temporary type originally provided has been generally unsatisfactory. There has been no recognized standard acceptable practice.

I have devised a dust guard cap which may be readily removed for access to the chamber and easily put back, which is workmanlike in nature and which cannot be unintentionally mislaid. The object of my invention, therefore, is to provide a simple, cheap, easily manufactured and readily applied dust guard cap suitable'for the conditions set forth and overcoming the related difliculties heretofore existing, which provides for ready access to the dust guard chamber under railroad conditions and which may be readily applied to existing railroad cars.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, as will be apparent as the description proceeds, my invention resides in the combination and arrangement of parts and in the details of construction described in this specification and particularly pointed out in the appended claim, it being understood that changes in the particular embodiment of my invention may be made within the scope of what is claimed without departing from the spirit of the invention. I intend no limitations other than those of the claim when fairly interpreted in the light of the full disclosure and the present state of the art.

In the drawing, which is furnished for illustrative purposes,

Fig. 1 is a conventional elevational showing of a journal box with wedge, bearing etc. removed, partly fragmentary and partly in section, to illustrate the position of the parts;

Fig. 2 is a sketch of a preferred form of dust guard cap according to my invention;

Fig. 3 illustrates, fragmentarily, an end elevation from the back, or right hand side of Fig. l, of a journal box with dust guard cap in place;

Fig. 4 is a side elevation, similar to Fig. 1, of a dust guard cap in place, the journal box being fragmentary;

Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 3 illustrative of a modified form of my invention relative to holding the cap in place.

Similar reference characters relate to similar parts in the several views.

Turning to Fig. 1, a journal box I is provided with a lid 2. Through the back extends a wheel axle 3 provided with a usual dust guard bearing 4 which is hugged by a dust guard 5 located in a dust guard chamber closed at the top by a dust guard cap 6 involving my invention and shown in Fig. 2.

Preferablyyin this form of my invention, a dust guard cap 6 is inexpensively formed as a hollow cover of sheet metal with dependent ends I, l, downwardly extended and bowed outwardly for resiliency, slots 8, 8, being provided. In position (Fig. 3) drive screws, pins, or thelike 9, 9, fixed in the metal of the journal box below the top of the dust guard chamber, are provided to engage in the slots 8, 8, of the cap 6,'the heads of the pins 9, 9, restraining the bowed ends 1, I, to give a spring action insuring tightness when the cap 6 is set down over the dust guard chamber opening. For inspection and access to the dust guard chamber, the closure 6 may be pried up, the slots 8, 8, permitting limited upward motion on the drive screws, and when clear of the projection over which the cap fits, the cap 6 may be tilted back on the drive screws as pivots and hang ready to be put on again when desired, thus insuring against ready loss.

If the extended ends I, 1, become broken oil? or if a modified cap 6A (Fig. 5) is preferred, the cap may be held in place by a wire or bail l0 twisted or hooked around the pins 9, 9, the bail being loose or secured to the cap as by welding, soldering, or otherwise, as preferred. The wire fastening downwardly extending and engaging the pins insures against loss of the closure in transit and, if merely loosened, may serve to retain the cap for ready replacement after removal.

What I claim is:

In railroad car construction in combination with a journal box provided at the back with a dust guard chamber open at the top, the walls of said chamber being integral with the journal box casting and projecting upwardly therefrom, of a closure for said opening comprising a onepiece, hollow, rectangular, sheet metal cap provided with dependent sides and end pieces formed by being bent downwardly from the plane of the top portion, of such character as to tightly fit around the said upwardly projecting chamber Walls, said end pieces continuing therebelow in outwardly bowed resilient members, slotted vertically in the bowed portion for a greater distance than the depth of said dependent sides, pins fixed in the journal box below said top opening of the dust guard chamber and coacting with said outwardly bowed slotted ends so constructed as to permit upward movement and swinging of saidcap clear of said chamber walls and to hold said cap tightly in place.

GEORGE W. DITMORE. 

